Psycological Review of the Soloist Essay Example
Psycological Review of the Soloist Essay Example

Psycological Review of the Soloist Essay Example

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  • Pages: 3 (730 words)
  • Published: June 18, 2018
  • Type: Review
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The Soloist: Psychological Movie Review The Motion picture “The Soloist” is about L. A. Times writer Steve Lopez discovering a musically gifted homeless man named Nathaniel Ayers. Desperately needing to catch a deadline Mr. Lopez considers writing a story about Nathaniel. While researching Mr. Lopez begins to discover interesting things about the talented musician. Nathanial Ayers was accepted to The Julliard’s School of music, the most prestige school for music in North America.

After one year at Julliard Nathanial dropped out, it turns out that Nathanial had a case of Paranoid Schizophrenia that forced him into a spiral of madness, which soon caused him to become homeless and lose a chance at becoming on of the greatest musicians of his time. Throughout the movie it is apparent that Nathanial does have some sort of mental disorder. The v

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iewer can notice Nathanial’s mental disorder in many ways, the first way is by the way he dresses. His clothes are all miss matched, and are very unusual in everyday life; Nathanial will also occasionally wear face paint in normal occasions.

Another way viewers could determine that Nathanial suffered from some sort of mental disorder was by the way he acted, although he had no physical defects, internally he was different. Nathanial would enjoy being homeless and loved to be alone, he would have extreme trouble staying on one topic, and he would also have trouble comprehending simple to complex things. Due to this evidence it is obvious that Nathanial has some sort of mental disorder like Paranoid Schizophrenia, but he is not specifically diagnosed in the movie.

Even without a professional diagnosis, the movie does a great job at showing

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the signs of a Paranoid Schizophrenic, which is what Nathanial is believed to be diagnosed with. In the movie Nathanial shows almost text box signs of Schizophrenia, for example Nathanial has voices in his head that only he can hear, and the voices are real enough to hurt him emotionally. Nathanial also shows another symptom of Schizophrenia which is that he has extreme difficulty focusing on one task, and is easily jumping from one subject to another.

Although this symptom is most common with ADD and ADHD, in combination with the symptom of hearing voices it pushes the viewer to believe that Nathanial does indeed have Paranoid Schizophrenia. The role of Nathanial Ayers was played by Jamie Foxx, and in playing that large role Mr. Foxx had to portray schizophrenic illness in the most accurate way. For the most part, Mr. Foxx did an excellent job at illustrating how the voices in a Schizophrenic’s head can be extremely loud and damaging.

In saying that there were however some mistakes in the portrayal of a Schizophrenic, for example real schizophrenics do not think they are crazy, they feel more reality impaired like a blind person is visually impaired. The movie showed that Nathanial knew he was crazy, but still acted as if he was not. Although in some ways the schizophrenic illness was well shown in the movie, there still were some mistakes in the proper portrayal of a real schizophrenic. In the movie Nathanial is in denial of having any sort of sickness, and refuses any medical help from his mental disorder.

Steven Lopez believes that Nathanial does need some sort of medical help and in the movie

resorts to many methods to treat Nathanial’s Schizophrenia. First Mr. Lopez brings Nathanial to a homeless shelter for the mentally disabled named Lamp, in hope that they will provide him with medication. Unfortunately Lamp can only give medication to Nathanial if he wants to take the medication himself, which he does not want to. Mr. Lopez then proceeds to have Nathanial sign a legal document to have a therapist visit him once a month, which as well did not sit well with Nathanial.

Although there were many failed attempts to help Nathanial, and by the end Mr. Lopez feels as if he has indeed failed in saving Nathanial’s life, he soon realizes that he has helped Nathanial more than any medication would. Mr. Lopez was the first real friend Nathanial had ever since his Schizophrenia struck him when he was 19. Just by being Nathanial’s friend, Mr. Lopez has brought happiness to his life for the first time, and this way Mr. Lopez has indeed saved Nathanial’s life.

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